So I haven't played skyrim for a while. That is, atleast not untill a few days ago when i decided to check out some mods and play some more. Now my character is stealth based, and it feels like they've completely changed how stealth works. Okay I'm still pretty much invisible with my dagger, and i still walk around doing 30x damage stealth attacks, but once I use my bow things are just messed up.

For some reason, the majority of the time when I stealth attack someone with my bow, everybody within a 200 m radius will instantly know where I am, this is despite my level 100 sneak and it's the middle of the night. This seriously bothers me beause stealth certainly didn't work like this when I played my character before taking my break. Have anyone else noticed this change and am I just late to the party? Or am i perhaps going crazy?

Yer something's fishy about it, since the mobs hear the arrow when I fire it, or more clearly I get detected just AS I fire the arrow. I think it's part of a mod that I have.

Well I'm certain it's not a mod, since my brother has this exact same issue, and I had it before adding any mods too. It really gets old, seeing as I prefer using bows, but when stealth acts like this, I see no reason to. I can kill 1 guy with my bow before the rest instantly and magically see me, where as with my dagger I can sneak attack a guy RIGHT beside his friend, without anyone noticing

Im on xbox and i don't have this problem.... update 1.5 maybe?

Perhaps, I don't think I saw anything about a stealth "fix" in the patch notes though

Yup, I've noticed it as well. I too thought it was a mod but I haven't installed anything sinxe the 1.5 patch went live. I'm just gonna have to put more points into sneak then and adapt.

I'm afraid more points into sneak won't do much though. I have 100 and they still instant see me. I think they somehow skip the "search mode" and just go straight to having detected you somehow. Honestly feels like a bug, surely it can't be intentional :S

Sometimes it does work, mostly indoors the likelihood of it working correctly will be bigger. I shoot one guy and the people around him will go to the corpse, or walk in my general direction as they should. However outside, pretty much every single time, my victim seems to send my location via email to all his friends before hitting the ground.

I play on PC and I dont have that problem....

I dont notice it ever. IM on xbox.

That's really odd :S So you've never experienced shooting someone in stealth and then having the entire camp find you within 1-2 seconds?

never.

Huh... makes the issue even stranger, seeing as I now have 3-4 people experiencing this and a similar number who havent. :S

I'm running 1.5 on the PC. I find that when I fire the bow, if it misses, the baddies go where the arrow went - because it made a noise. If I hit, the baddies have a vague idea where I am, and if they are fairly close, they'll come towards me - again, I assume it's the noise of the bow they "hear". If I'm a way away, they'll blunder around. But I've never had them "know" where I am, and the sneak icon shows mostly shut. I'd say mine is working about right.

Your on pc? Are you sure you dont have some strange mod on that messed up the coding?

People don't find me instantly, but it certainly does raise an alarm. Then I usually retreat back into the shadows until they calm down.

My only problem with stealth is how you can only get the ranged bonus to only go up to 3x damage. Making 1 hit stealth kills on even tougher-than-average bandits practically impossible.

See this is how it's supposed to work. You're supposed to hit an enemy / wall / floor and whoever is left alive will search for you, and you can drift back into the shadows. However, to me, half the times I kill someone from stealth all his friends know where I am. It may be a mod, but I don't see what it would be, I don't have anything that changes AI at all. I have a house mod, a war mod and a bunch of mods having to do with items (adding, changes ect). None of these should affect how npcs react to me in stealth

Since I'm on xbox, I can't comment on whether 1.5 has affected this, but without that patch, I don't experience what you're talking *unless* I don't have any muffle effects. Daggers are inherently silent and, therefore, not affected by muffle, but other weapons, including bows, are affected. So, any change to your gear recently (or less use of the muffle spell)?

Edit: typos

Well, I play on PC too and I get insta-spotted. So, your argument is moot.

Mods have been known to mess things up, that they werent suppose to affect, my friend who plays on the pc spawning think was basically messed up due to a mod, Bears were spawning in the middle of the city!!!!

He didn't make an argument. He just offered his experience.

I did change my weapon recently, but I think I had the issue before aswell. As for the "muffle" spell. I've never used it, and never had people insta-spot me before. Actually I felt nigh invsible since lvl 60 sneak, and now suddenly people will just see me :S.

As for mods affecting it, as i said, I think I had the issue before having any mods on too :/, besides my brother doesn't use any mods and he also experiences this regularly

And that'S how it should have been in the first place! I didn't like this [censored] strategy, it was abusing the AI's stupidity, and they seem to have fixed it.
Or did you prefer this [censored]? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CbxMDRcjoY

Ha ha. That video never gets old.

Same here ... The second i let go and the arrow hasn't even left the bow yet, the target gets up!

Even if i'm completely in the dark, not moving and at a great distance, somehow that bandit sitting next to the fire with his back towards me just knows the arrow is coming his way.

The only mods i run are visual ...

How much damage is your bow doing?

My Glass bow, with steel arrows will do 173 damage points + 24 points shock damage/half as much magicka damage. I am using four enchantment to get a +138% more damage points also.

If I used Eleven Arrow it's up to 215 damage points, with stealth kills = 645 damage points + 72 points shock damage/half as much magicka damage